Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 68

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INTERNET CHATTING IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
of how to behave on the channels. Chat
channels usually have - not only the Faroese
channels - some “guards” supervising and
controlling the communication, and chatters
breaking the rules and customs are kicked
out of the channels. It is e.g. not allowed to
chat with nicknames that may seem offen-
sive to other chatters. On the chat channel
homepage novices fínd all the practical in-
formation necessary to start a venture as a
chatter.
Many chatters aim at finding new friends
or even a boyfriend/girlfriend on the chat
channel. They hope to find people they can
meet in real life. There are many so-called
chat couples, and on the Faroesechat home-
page people often discuss who is going to
be the chat couple of the year. There are
many suggestions, often with both the nick-
names and real names of the couple revei led!
It is clear from this that many chatters are
close friends in real life and therefore use
the real names on the net without even re-
flecting about the anonymity of the persons
in question. Many of the young chatters are
from different islands and villages and
would probably not have known each other
without the chat communication. Through
a combination of chat communication,
meetings at concerts and night clubs, a large
network of youths from the whole country
is established.
Those trying to find a girlfriend/ boy-
friend or sexpartner on the internet are often
using weeks and months of chat communi-
cation before the fírst meeting in real life
takes place. Typically the contact starts with
chat contact once or a couple of times a
week. When the partners feel relatively safe
and confídent about each other, they may ex-
change email addresses; thereafter maybe
digital personal pictures; and then the fírst
big transition: phone numbers are ex-
changed (usually mobile phone numbers)
and they start talking to each other. It may
start with sms communication before they
have gained the courage to call the other one.
Now the planning of the place and time of
the first meeting comes on the agenda. Many
chatters have made hotmail addresses for
this purpose; they can exchange email ad-
dresses without disclosing their real name.
This email address belongs to the chat per-
son and is in general not used for other daily
communication.
More than chat
Every day there are new contributions in the
debate on the chat channel homepages.
Everyone visiting the Faroese_chat home-
page is free to write his opinion in a contri-
bution to one of the many parallel debates
on the intemet. It is also easy to start a new
debate by establishing a new subject for dis-
cussion. Most contributions are from teen-
agers and very local in content. The chat-
ters discuss school, villages, regions, sex,
love, drugs, violence, religion, politics, spe-
cific persons, chat, etc.
It is very interesting to follow the lively
discussions on the net, because Faroese
youth is an almost invisible group in the so-
cietal debate of the Faroese mcdia. The
newspapers, radio and television don’t give
any priority to youth issues; young people
feel excluded from thc public space and take
advantage of the possibilities of the new free
media: the internet. On many youth sites on